A Chess Playing Paprika

Hi everyone, I'm back for my second blog post on Chess.com! Today I am here to discuss a very recent chess game I have played. Yesterday evening I played a game that I really enjoyed, because my opponent was truly the same level as myself, and not only that, he was very social and funny as well - as for the game itself, it was the kind of game a beginner like myself can be proud of. We talked during the game, and it was a ridiculous conversation - however I won't mention what it was about since our conversation did not have "chess" as its topic. Now, I'm sure the game itself would be the most interesting, so I'll get to that now!

In this particular game, I played as white and my opponent was black. Like I said, my opponent seemed to be of the same level as myself, so during the first stages of the game, we really were going kind of head-to-head. The game became especially interesting after move 14.Nxd4 because my opponent's Queen and mine were still on their starting square facing each other, and there was only a single piece between them: my Knight.

Pretty soon after that, I sacrificed a lot of my own pieces (a lot of them by accident... ) but I tried to keep my Rooks and Queen "alive" extra hard because they always prove very useful during the later stages of a chess game, especially during the end-game.

Later I tried offering a Queen exchange, because at that moment I thought it would be to my advantage, but to my surprise, my opponent did not accept it. And my theory about the Rooks and Queen being most effective during the end-game proved to be true (at least in this particular match!) after my opponent did 27...bc4+?? and checking my King on f1. In that situation, I couldn't move my King anywhere because the black Bishop on c4 and the black Queen on c5 were covering all the squares my King could move to. So I had two options left to me: since I couldn't move my King, I could either block the attack or "kill" the attacking piece, in this case black's Bishop on c4. I could capture the black Bishop with my Queen on a4, but that would mean I would give my own Queen away and my opponent would still have theirs, so I didn't think it was a good idea. So, I blocked the attack with my Rook with 28.Re2?? and of course my opponent captured my brave Rook.

Meanwhile, the conversation between my opponent and myself continued - oddly enough, we were speaking about nothing but... paprikas. Strange, isn't it? (Don't worry, I will get back to the game soon enough... ) We were laughing because we each made jokes about paprikas, like for example, he asked me if I was, perhaps, a real paprika (for people who live in the USA, in Europe, "paprika" means what you call "bell pepper"!), and I answered that "Ok, I confess, I'm a green paprika. You got me." Like I said, our conversation was funny, but completely ridiculous.

To get back to the game (wow, you must all think "Finally, this guy keeps rambling about things off-topic! Now how did that game of his go?! Tell us, man!" or something like that... ), my opponent continued checking me time after time after I captured his Bishop (the one that captured my poor Rook, aww, that guy saved his King!) Eventually, my opponent played 33...e3?? which, after I downloaded a Computer Analysis, turned out to be a mistake on his part - a better idea was for him to play 33...h5+ however, even though he didn't do that, I thought I was in terribly hot water at that moment. I mean, my opponent was obviously aiming at promoting his e-Pawn and I did not see any way to prevent him from doing so without sacrificing my Rook or Queen. Then it hit me: I did 34.Qa6+?? with which I created a fork at both black's King and Queen, while at the same time offering yet another Queen exchange! I truly believed he would be smart enough to accept the offer of a Queen exchange at this time, but let me tell you, I was flabbergasted when my opponent moved his King: 34...Kd7?? Of course, it should be obvious that I immediately took the chance to capture his Queen with 35.Qxf1. But the shame was, I was even more surprised when, right after 35.Qxf1 my opponent suddenly resigned, just like that. Maybe he felt he had just made a great mistake and quit, but he left without a word, which did strike me as odd considering how he was in such good spirits during the course of the game and our conversation. However, I truly enjoyed this game and, despite the fact that my opponent resigned, I feel really good about this game. Perlundman, if you are reading this, thank you for the great game we played!